The Democratic plan for 2014

O’Malley is moving forward and preparing a presidential bid, meeting with policy experts to flesh out his plans for “a better way forward for our country,” according to a recent interview.

“I have a great deal of respect for Hillary Clinton,” O’Malley told the Washington Post. “But for my own part, I have a responsibility to prepare and to address the things that I feel a responsibility to address. . . . To squander this important period of preparation because of horse-race concerns and handicapping concerns is just not a very productive use of energy. . . . Right now, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing — the thought work and the preparation work.”

Still, the Post reports that if Clinton runs, it’s unlikely O’Malley will challenge the former Secretary of State, who is a friend and political ally.

But it’s not stopping the home-grown Maryland politician from promoting himself at events in New Hampshire last year, where he invited voters in the early voting state to “join the movement.”

“This is not the year for rolling out yard signs or bumper stickers,” O’Malley said. “I’m meeting with people in ways that never really make the paper, and shouldn’t — people that have experience in foreign affairs and foreign policy and national security, all of which is part of a continuing education and refinement of my beliefs and thoughts about how to govern ourselves as a people.”